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Home , Letcombe Bassett, Letcombe Brook, Letcombe Regis, Segsbury Camp

Help look after the brook

• Take your litter home and clear up after your dog The Letcombe Brook Project works with local people and • Think about how you use water organisations to enhance and protect the natural beauty of the brook and to help people appreciate the environment. Lifestyle choices, population growth and climate The project undertakes work to encourage native wildlife, DISCOVERY TRAIL change are placing increasing demands on improve the landscape, remove rubbish and alleviate our water supplies. In this area, the future flooding along the brook. You can learn more by domestic water supply comes from coming on a guided walk/talk or join in a conservation the aquifers which feed the Letcombe task. The project offers educational opportunities for local and Brook. Thinking about how we use schools including river dipping. water and reducing usage will help to ensure that there is enough water for us and wildlife in years to come. Thames Water can supply information on how you can save water. www.thameswater.co.uk/save

Please don’t feed the ducks as it can be harmful to them and cause: • Poor nutrition • Overcrowding and spread of disease amongst ducks • Unnatural behaviour River dipping • Pollution and environmental damage Letcombe Brook Project • An increase in rats in the area C/o Vale and Downland Museum Church Street If you care about the ducks then please do not feed them – allow them to return to their OXON natural habits. OX12 8BL 01235 771447 Local information [email protected] Volunteers Partnership Letcombe Regis Parish Council Letcombe Regis Parish Council www.letcombe-regis.org.uk Wantage Town Council Vale and Downland Museum Grove Parish Council 01235 771447 www.wantage-museum.com East Parish Council BBOWT 01865 775476 www.bbowt.org.uk The Letcombes Conservation Group Leaflet sponsored by Environment Agency Letcombe Regis Responsible for protecting and improving rivers. Parish Council A 3 mile walk, exploring the brook For pollution and flood defence matters call 24 hour through the villages and nature reserve emergency hotline 0800 80 70 60. Designed and printed September 2016 Discovery Trail Letcombe Brook ook ey Br The Letcombe Brook flows through the attractive villages The Letcombe Brook is a chalk stream which is a Childr of Letcombe Regis and Letcombe Bassett. These villages globally rare habitat: 85% of all the chalk streams on N are known as spring line settlements as it is here that our planet are found in . the brook rises at the foot of the escarpment of a range of chalk hills known as the Downs, part of the The brook is fed from springs issuing from the chalk North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. rock at Letcombe Regis and Letcombe Bassett. It exhibits the classic chalk stream characteristics of crystal clear Letcombe was first recorded as ‘Regis’ in the reign of oxygenated water, a year round temperature of around Richard II (c.1390) but it was once a royal manor of the 11°C and a consistent flow of water flowing over a kings of Wessex, passing to William the Conqueror in 1066. clean gravel bed.

k o o r People settled along the brook as it provided a clean and The brook flows northwards through the Vale of the B e plentiful source of fresh water. The character of the brook White Horse in for 12 km where it meets b 8 m 3 o 3 has been shaped and changed by centuries of human the Brook, which runs into the River Ock and A endeavour including water collection, farming and milling. on into the River Thames. Letc Today Thames Water abstracts from the aquifers via a borehole at Childrey Warren and supplies the local area There are over 170 riparian owners of the brook. Rights with drinking water. generally extend to the middle of the brook so there are usually two owners on any stretch. This trail helps you to explore and discover the brook, which is sometimes hidden from view, as it weaves its Other walks: To explore other sections on way through the villages identifying natural, historic and the Letcombe Brook in Wantage and Grove Grove landscape features along the route. you can download two leaflets from www.wantage.com/letcombe-brook-project Otter Distance: This trail follows a linear route and is 3 miles return. The walk starts in Letcombe Regis at the Village Otters and water voles have A417 returned to the brook. Although Hall car park and continues to Letcombe Bassett where otters eat fish their spraint smells of you then retrace your steps to the start. new mown hay or jasmine tea!

Accessibility: The trail is on a mixture of surfaced and grass paths, rural footpaths and road. The trail is level WANTAGE until it reaches 6 Community Nature Reserve where there are steps. Boots are a must in winter k o Letcombe Brook as the paths get muddy. o Letcombe r Discovery Trails B Regis e There is a café in the Lodge at Richmond Retirement Kingfisher b m o c 0 2 km Village and The Greyhound Inn on Main Street. The Kingfisher is an expert angler, t e its diet consists of small fish such as L Parking is available in the Village Hall car park. 8 minnows, sticklebacks and bullheads Letcombe 3 3 as well as insects. Bassett A 0 1 mile Our local place names reflect the presence of the brook Discover the Letcombe Brook 3 Letcombe Brook – During the winter female trout Follow the grass path (which can be muddy) along lay their eggs in hollows, known as redds which they the brook until you reach a grass bank. Walk up the Starting at the village hall car park, turn right and make in the clean gravel. The eggs are then fertilised by slope through the kissing gate and along the brook. at the end of the thatched cottage on your left is the male. a footpath. Take this path across the brook to the 7 Modified channel Millennium Green. Continue to follow the path with the brook on The brook is wider here and in the winter you can your right. see another channel behind which was part of an old 1 Letcombe Brook is a haven for wildlife. Wild watercress bed. brown trout and bullhead feed on invertebrates such 4 Richmond Retirement Village was opened in Where the channel is wide the water slows down and as freshwater shrimp and caddis fly larvae. Kingfishers 2010 and access along the brook was provided as a silt settles on the bed. Large woody debris helps to dart along the clear water and water voles and otters result of campaigning by the Parish Council and local narrow the brook and to channel the flow. This then have been making a return over the last 10 years as the residents. habitat has improved. helps to keep the gravel clean which trout like to spawn in. 5 Lake and brook – as Millennium Green – Letcombe Regis Parish Council part of the development a 8 The Lake was formed by the dam built around purchased the old school playing field in 2007 and new channel was created 1900 as part of an early domestic hydroelectric scheme registered it as a Village Green to preserve it as a public on the other side of the for a manor house now replaced by the Richmond open space. lake. This provides a fish Retirement Village. bypass and restores the Take the path through the green to the road. Turn fast flowing chalk stream, Watch out for gadwell, moorhens and kingfishers whose right and walk a short distance to the church gate. whilst retaining the lake. arrival is sometimes heard as a shrill whistle. Little The banks are managed to egrets have become regular winter visitors upstream 2 Church of St Andrew provide habitat for water Fish bypass from here. By the front door there are voles for burrowing and foraging. two fine yew trees and to the Continue past the lake to a surfaced path for about right of the path is an obelisk Meadow 25 paces and stop overlooking a steep bank. dedicated to George King The grass in front of the lake is managed as a wildflower Hipango, a Maori chieftain, meadow with ladies bedstraw, knapweed and birds-foot who died at Letcombe Regis trefoil. 9 Meanders in 1871, aged 19 years. This is a good place to see the brook meandering slowly Keep straight ahead until the path goes over a as it carves its way through the silt. The vibrant green From the church gate board walk to a gate. Go through the gate into plant in the channel is likely to be starwort. turn right, passing the the Nature Reserve and cross the surfaced path village shop and cafe on the left. Go past Castle with handrail and take the grass path that runs Continue until you see some steps on the right. Go Gardens and take the footpath on the right by the alongside the brook. For a closer look at the brook down these and follow the path for a closer view of Dovecote. there is a bridge to your right. the brook.

Just before the bridge over the brook turn left 6 Letcombe Valley Community Nature Reserve 10 Springs through a gate which leads through Richmond The reserve is owned by Richmond Retirement Village The bridges cross springs issuing from the chalk and rare Retirement Village. Take this path along the brook and leased to the Berks, Bucks & Oxon Wildlife Trust. Soldier flies have been recorded in this area. to the next bridge. Local volunteers help improve the paths and manage the habitats. Continue round to rejoin the main path.

11 Chalk downland – on the left is a steep 13 15 Church of St. Michael and bank which is being managed for wildflowers. – on the left you get All Angels – By the front door Volunteers cut scrub to maintain the glimpses of the is a ‘bale’ tomb, the last resting

T grassland for flowers and insects. E chalk hills, rich place of a wool merchant. The

VILLAGE E R T semi-circular top with incisions S in relics of pre- HALL CO

N I U Continue to some steps and stop A RT history featuring is thought to represent tied- 1 M H 2 IL up bales of cloth. The skulls in after the first flight at the bench. L the Ridgeway 3 RO A scallop shells possibly represent S D and nearby an O LETCOMBE U T Iron age hill fort – a corpse wrapped in a woollen

12 Track – Between the two flights BLANDY’S 4 H REGIS S

T

FARM 5 R shroud.

of steps there is flat terrace which E or E runs along the valley here. In T Letcombe Castle. Go back down the steps to the lane and turn left to the past this was used as a track 6 BROOK a field gate. between the villages referred to VIEW W At the end of the A R D B footpath turn right as the Old Bassett Road and as an O A 7 O R R O old drovers road used to bring T U down the road to 16 View of Devils Punch Bowl – Ahead T G E LETCOMBE H S S reach the bridge next to sheep down off the Downs. R A In the distance is a dry valley cut at the end of the Ice VALLEY NATURE O B 8 A D the old watercress beds. RESERVE Age by the flow of water over frozen permafrost and Views of valley – this is a chalk rock below. great place to take in the 9 14 Watercress beds – 10 landscape. Here the deeply Letcombe Bassett was famous Follow the footpath straight ahead and then bear incised valley was carved out for the growing of watercress, and right down a path known as Apple Pie. Cross the by the erosive force of melt “Bassett Cress” was a familiar cry in Holborn Hill Road and turn right. Shortly on the left water on the underlying chalk 11 Old Covent Garden Market in London. is a house called Delamere. Stop at white railings on rock, still frozen and therefore 12 the left. impermeable, at the end of Retrace your steps up the hill and the last Ice Age. 13 continue along road until you reach 17 Source of the brook – at Delamere look over the Gramps Hill on the left and into Forsters hedge where you can glimpse the headwater lake. This is Go up the second Lane to the church. one of the main spring flight of steps and heads that feeds the brook and was once a watercress turn right onto bed. The other main spring head is in a garden in the footpath. 14 Letcombe Regis. KEY Brook Parking Continue to the next property on the left. Route 18 Footpath Cafe Arabella’s Cottage – Thomas Hardy refers to the 18 village as Cresscombe in his work, Jude the Obscure. HO 17 LBO RN HILL LETCOMBE N This pretty thatched cottage down by the brook is where BASSETT 0 100 metres Arabella lived, and where she first met Jude. SPANSWICK G Scale: R A FARM M 0 100 yards P 15 ’S H Continue down the road past Gramps Hill, until I RECTORY LL 16 FARM you reach Rectory Lane on your right and take the footpath straight ahead to retrace your steps to 12 . Go down one flight of steps and follow the wide grass terraced path back to the board walk at 6 .